MAS needs to be privatised, say analysts

By TESTCustomwebLP TESTCustomwebLP
April 17, 2014 10:00

Maybank Research has stated that Khazanah Nasional must take Malaysian Airline System (MAS) private now and float the carriers’ profitable units as standalone companies in order to gain a premium on its investment.

“Our analysis suggests the break-up value of all of MAS’ profitable business units is RM4.15 billion (base case), which is a 18% premium to MAS’ current market capitalisation,” said a research report.

Maybank says that flight MH370 will impact MAS financials, its performance in 2015 is expected to improve due to its fleet rejuvenation and the benefits of cost cuts.
“Based on this outlook, it is ideal to privatise MAS in 2014, and perform the necessary restructuring ahead of the multiple listings in 2015,” the analyst said.